India tops in rate of maternal deaths WORLDWIDE

India tops in rate of maternal deaths WORLDWIDE

India and Nigeria together accounted for a third of the deaths of pregnant women globally in 2010, latest UN figures said, even as maternal deaths declined by nearly half in the past two decades due to improvement in health systems and increased female education.

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Image: Women who have recently given birth and their relatives are pictured through a nurse's observaton window as they rest in a post delivery ward at a district hospital in Shivpuri, Madhya PradeshPhotographs: Vivek Prakash/Reuters

India tops in rate of maternal deaths WORLDWIDE

Globally, an estimated 287,000 women died in pregnancy and childbirth in 2010, a decline of 47 per cent from levels in 1990, with Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounting for 85 per cent of the those maternal deaths, according to a report on trends in maternal mortality between 1990 to 2010 released by UN Population Fund, World Health Organisation, UN Children's Fund and the World Bank.

At the country level, India and Nigeria accounted for a third of global maternal deaths, with India at 19 per cent (56,000) and Nigeria at 14 per cent (40,000).

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Image: A 26-year-old pregnant woman in labour, stands on a weighing scale as her details are recorded at a community health centre in Chharchh, Madhya PradeshPhotographs: Vivek Prakash/Reuters